SEER-PM: A Secure and Energy-Efficient Routing Protocol for Pipeline Monitoring Wireless Sensor Networks

Oil and gas pipelines are critical infrastructures that require continuous and reliable monitoring to detect leaks, pressure anomalies, corrosion, and unauthorized activities. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have emerged as an effective solution for large-scale pipeline monitoring due to their low deployment cost and real-time sensing capabilities. However, the resource-constrained nature of sensor nodes and the open wireless communication environment expose pipeline monitoring systems to various routing attacks, for example, blackhole, sinkhole, selective forwarding, and false data injection attacks, while simultaneously demanding strict energy efficiency to prolong network lifetime. In this paper, we propose SEER-PM (Secure and Energy-Efficient Routing for Pipeline Monitoring): a novel protocol that integrates an Artificial neural network (ANN)-based trust mechanism with energy-aware routing metrics. SEER-PM dynamically evaluates node trustworthiness based on packet forwarding behavior, residual energy, and signal consistency. By training the ANN on historical behavioral data, the system accurately detects malicious nodes with high precision. Simulation results demonstrate that SEER-PM outperforms existing secure routing protocols (Sec-AODV and T-LEACH) in terms of packet delivery ratio (PDR) by 14%, detection rate by 9.5%, and network lifetime by 12% under heavy attack scenarios. The proposed protocol enhances the reliability, security, and sustainability of pipeline monitoring WSNs operating in harsh and remote environments.